Radiofrequency (RF) communications equipment generally employs a combination of mixers, amplifiers and switches to route signals through alternate paths for filtering or processing. Amplifiers are useful to increase the power level of a signal of interest. In RF transmission, RF mixers are used to transpose radio frequencies to a useful signal for transmission and delivery at an intermediate frequency. Conversely, in reception, mixers are used to transpose the RF frequency of a received signal to a relatively low intermediate frequency for processing by downstream electronic circuits.
Existing RF systems lack reconfigurable system architectures that may be suitable for extended frequency coverage and simultaneous transmit and receive (STAR) operation.